Prosecutors weigh in on the ‘ideal’ Entwistle juror

Having recently posted a blog on what the defense might be looking for during jury selection in the Neil Entwistle murder case, today I pose the same question to a handful of Massachusetts homicide prosecutors.

In an effort to prevent these hard-working, under-paid lawyers from getting into trouble, their names and county locations are being withheld.

The near unanimous conclusion is that the ideal juror, from a prosecution perspective, would be a woman who is close in age and lifestyle to Entwistle’s murdered 29-year-old wife.

Here’s a sampling of what they said:

• “I would want a woman who was in her 20s or 30s. Ideally, I’d be looking for women who are the mothers of small children.”

• “Small children are clearly the lynchpin here. I think you’ll see the defense exercising peremptory challenges on jurors who have kids close in age to [9-month-old] Lillian Entwistle.”

• “I would want young mothers, because, No. 1, there is a certain basic association that they would have with the two victims in the case.”

• [Where Entwistle is accused of possible marital infidelity,] “I would want a juror who just recently had a baby. Under those circumstances, I think there would be a certain hatred for a cheating spouse.”

• “I would shy away from single, middle-aged men. There is less likely to be a connection to the victims; they might be less offended by the Internet activity.”

• “I don’t think race is an issue in this case, so I wouldn’t be worried about that.”

• “I don’t want anyone young on that jury. No college kids. I don’t think they have the worldly experience to say, ‘OK, I’ll send this guy away for the rest of his life.’”

I ran some of these comments by Cambridge-based jury consultant Nancy L. Neufer.

Neufer agreed with many of the things the prosecutors have to said. “Given the nature of the crime, which is alleged to have happened with the marital relationship, I think that women are going to be more critical and automatically identify with the spouse,” she said.